HIIT Training & Muscle Building

HIIT Training & Muscle Building is yet another amazing workout from Yvette Bachman. She creates my absolute favorite types of workouts–strength + cardio, but she does them better than anyone else because her strength work is frequently heavy strength work. So you can get some serious strength work combined with cardio if you really challenge yourself. It really doesn’t get any better than that. Plus Yvette has awesome music and I just love the way she puts things together! She uses equipment for cardio to increase intensity–in this this workout medicine ball, 5 pound dumbbells and she is wearing weighted gloves. Plus you use the step @ 10 inches for some of the cardio. This is a long workout–74 minutes, but it has several sections so I can easily make this workout approx. an hour so I can use it on a weekday. I cannot tell you how much that thrills me. I hate it when I discover these awesome workouts that I want to use frequently but I have to relegate them to weekends because of their length. Don’t misunderstand, the additional cardio after the cardio + strength is awesome, too, and on weekends, I will always include it, but these are the kinds of workouts I like to include in my daily routines.

For my future reference (and anyone else who is interested) the warm up + the cardio + strength ends at 50:00 mark. At that point Yvette and class put their steps away. If I did this on a week day I would do the same (put my step away) then scrub forward to 1:06:00 (66 minute mark) when they are laying their mats out for the core work. What follows is 4 minutes of core work and the 2:30 stretch. That equals a 57 minute cardio + strength workout with some core thrown in. Perfect for a weekday morning!

HIIT Training & Muscle Building is 74 minutes long; 9 minute warm up, 41 minutes cardio + strength, 15 minutes of interval cardio, 4 minutes core and 2:30 minute stretch. Equipment: step set up on an incline when workout begins, heavy dumbbells, 5 pound dumbbells, a resistance tube and a medicine ball. The first part of the workout is cardio + strength. For the strength work (chest, shoulders & triceps) you do 5-8 reps–so heavy weights. You do 60 second cardio intervals between each set of strength work. The workout starts w/ the step on an incline but once chest work is complete (right after #13 below) you even the step out, setting it at 10 inches (3 risers on each side). As for the weights, what is listed below is what I used. For the cardio and the core work Yvette and class all used 5 pound dumbbells. I don’t know what Yvette’s weights were for the strength work. She recommends a range for the individual exercises and from doing her other heavy weight workouts she is probably lifting at the top end of the range (she is strong). I used 30 pounds for chest, 25 pounds for triceps and 20 pounds for shoulders. I also don’t know the weight of the medicine balls they were using. I used my 8 pound ball for the cardio and my 6 pound ball for the core work.

1. Burpee w/ plank jack + 2 standing jacks
2. Chest press (30# DBs)
3. 3 shuffles to side, squat swinging medicine ball between thighs (8# ball)
4. Chest press (30# DBs)
5. Squat jump to side, swinging ball between thighs, 2 jacks to the front pushing ball overhead, alternate sides (8# ball)
6. Chest press (30# DBs)
7. Plie squat while swinging ball between thighs + plie squat jack while swinging ball between thighs (8# ball)
8. Chest press (30# DBs)
9. 2 jacks + shuffle 3x to side; ends w/ just jacks
10. Chest press (30# DBs)
11. 6 alternating shoulder taps in plank, jump feet in and do one tuck jump
12. Plank hold w/ feet or hands on medicine ball
13. Squat and when you stand, toss ball overhead; ends w/ squat pulses (8# ball)
14. Burpee on floor, box jump and pulse squat 3x while on step
15. Narrow chest press (25# DBs)
16. 3 knee repeater on step (each leg) + step one foot on end of step while stepping other foot out to side, repeat on other leg
17. Narrow chest press (25# DBs)
18. Corner to corner insole taps (on step)
19. Narrow chest press (25# DBs)
20. Burpee w/ hands on step + 2 air jacks
21. Narrow chest press (25# DBs)
22. Step one foot on end of step while stepping other foot out to side, repeat on other leg + 2 hamstring curl steps
23. Narrow chest press (25# DBs)
24. Shuffle to side and do a side punch, alternate sides (5# DBs)
25. One arm overhead tricep extension w/ resistance tube (15 reps)
26. Lay tube on ground and fast feet over the tube and back moving the length of the tube
27. Repeat #25 on other arm
28. Step one foot on end of step while stepping other foot out to side while doing hook punch, repeat on other leg + 2 alternating knee pulls on step
29. Seated Arnold press (20# DBs)
30. Burpee + jump on/off step
31. Seated Arnold press (20# DBs)
32. Corner to corner 3 knee repeaters (on step)
33. Seated Arnold press (20# DBs)
34. Walk out to plank, 2 plank jacks, walk hands back to feet, stand and do 1 tuck jump
35. Seated Arnold press (20# DBs)
36. Corner to corner hamstring curl while tapping heel with hand (on step)
37. Seated Arnold press (20# DBs)
38. Walk out to plank, 2 push ups, walk hands back to feet, stand and do 2 jacks
39. Corner to corner step taps w/ hop (on step)
40. Cross punches (5# DBs)

Put away step and dumbbells and lay resistance tube vertically on the floor. This takes nearly 2 minutes so you can get a drink and towel off, too. 1-10 below is done for 40 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest.

1. Straddle run over the tube and high knee run backwards beside tube back to start, alternate sides when running back
2. Fast straddle walk over the tube and tap handle, straddle walk back to start and tap other handle
3. 3 lateral jumps over tube + one jump
4. Start in plank, jump feet in and sumo walk forward and back, straddling tube then jump feet back to plank
5. Skaters forward and back over tube
6. Long jump beside tube + 3 jacks backward
7. In straight arm plank, alternate tapping hands on either side of tube
8. Run forward beside band, run backward and around band to other side, run forward–and keep repeating, running side to side
9. Squat jump forward, straddling tube, jump back, plank squat thrust
10. Triple jog side to side, hopping over tube each time

Change tube so it is now horizontal in front of you. 1-12 below is done for 30 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest.

1. Shuffle squat side to side the length of the tube while tapping the inside of the tube’s handle with each squat
2. Standing behind tube, jump to side, jump back, squat jump forward over tube, hold squat 4 counts, jump back to start, repeat on other side; ends w/ pulsing squats
3. Plank walk the length of the tube and back
4. Switch feet side to side over tube
5. Plank spidermans
6. Squat jump diagonally, jump back and do 2 jacks, alternate sides (touch floor when squatting)
7. In plank, punch each arm forward then bring each knee in under body
8. Lateral skaters, tapping handles of tube
9. Squat jump over tube and pulse squat 3x then jump back; ends with pulse squat only
10. Alternating side lunges w/ hop between lunges (tap tube handles when lunging)
11. In straight arm plank, alternate raising straight arms to side
12. Fast feet forward and back over tube

Get mat, medicine ball and 5 pound dumbbells for core work. I used 8 pound dumbbells, too.

1. Sit ups w/ cross punches at top and pull over at bottom (5# DBs)
2. Full sit ups w/ pullovers at bottom and overhead press at top (8# DBs)
3. Lay on back holding DBs straight overhead, raise and lower straight legs, keeping arms/DBs stationary (8# DBs)
4. Full crunches holding ball in both hands and pulling in knee at top, tapping ball to shin and bringing ball overhead at bottom, alternate knees (6# ball)
5. Full sit up, toss ball overhead at top of sit up and do a pullover at bottom (6# ball)
6. Russian twists but bounce ball on ground each time you twist to side (6# ball)
7. Full straight leg sit up, bringing ball to toes and doing a pullover at bottom (6# ball)
8. Plank hold w/ hands on med ball

For more info on Yvette Bachman and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.